File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1998/postcolonial.9805, message 136


Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 17:49:49 +0300
From: Deniz Daser <ddaser-AT-ku.edu.tr>
Subject: Re: here we go... (III)


I think that whoever wrote that blurb was trying to say that the good,
humankind loving aspects of religion aren't seen in politics. Am I right? Of
course they're different, or there would be no such thing as politics!! And we
probably wouldn't have this list!! :)
I would agree with Dave though in that religious culture is seen in all aspects
of politics. Speaking of "postcolonial" though, one could argue that Western
influenced aspects of politics have become seen all over the world, such as the
very idea of the nation-state. Pretty individualistic and internally-oriented
if you ask me!! So does that mean that Protestant values have spread across the
world (are there even any left??)
By the way, I read something in relation to Weber the other day. There is the
idea that Western families were collectivistic before industrialization, and
that they were forced to incorporate the  Protestant work ethic and
individualism into their family structures and living habits. Of course, this
social Darwinistic idea has large implications for "developing",
"collectivistic" socities. Anyway, this theory has been disproven by records of
individualistic family structures and living patterns recorded before the
Industrial Revolution!! That tells you something about the importance of
culture, hmmm? Now that Japan and other economically strong Asian countries
have surpassed Europe and the US in terms of the centrality and importance of
work (without changing their culture), I guess it would be safe to say that
they have a stronger Protestant work ethic?! ;)
Deniz

David Skreiner wrote:

> > There's nothing Christian in U.S. policies, just as there's nothing Hindu
> > in Indian policies.
>
> Well, you could argue for a sort of Puritan heritage, with all the stress
> put on individualism and so on, which is political, since it prevents the
> USA from establishing a functioning social net... Max Weber wrote
> about that (the Puritan heritage, not the social net)
>
> dave
>
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